Nurse who took NHS leased Mercedes to car wash after her son shot rival in the back seat is struck off

A registered mental health nurse with well over 25-years experience has been struck off after she received a prison sentence last year. Patricia Dean was convicted of assisting an offender, namely her son Vincenzo De Falco, who shot a love rival with a shotgun from point blank range in January 2019, and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

On January 21, 2019, De Falco shot the man in the leg in the back seat of her car, which was being leased to her by the NHS. After she became aware of what he had done, she took the car to a car wash in a failed attempt to get rid of the evidence.

De Falco had travelled to Rochdale and took the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which Dean allowed her son to drive when he needed it. He then became involved in an argument with an ex-partner of his then current girlfriend, and shot him in the leg before dumping them on Knowsley Street, Rochdale.

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In the aftermath, De Falco concocted a plan to hide the car and then get it cleaned, which Dean did. Both were arrested in Middleton, two days after the shooting. De Falco was jailed for more than 11 years last November.

A hearing was held last week by the Nursing and Widwifery Council's (NMC) Fitness to Practice Committee to judge if Dean's fitness to practice was impaired by the conviction. Dean was already dismissed from the hospital she worked at, Manchester North General Hospital, in October last year.

At the outset of the hearing Dean is said to have told the panel that while she accepts she was convicted of a crime, she did not do this willingly or knowingly. Therefore she did not admit that her fitness to carry on practicing